Wednesday, February 03, 2010

LIFE WITHOUT BORDERS

"In the rush and noise of life, as you have intervals, step home within yourselves and be still. Wait upon God, and feel His good presence; this will carry you evenly through your day's business."

- William Penn

We all live in the land of ordinary. Our days begin the same. Our sun arises, and we awake. Our morning routine begins. Our thoughts churn with the needs waiting for our hands, feet, and lips of clay.

The needs around us, waiting for the imprint of our lives, press us to our own need, often sending us to our knees, bringing us to the reality of our human hearts and will. We know we are flesh. Imperfect. Flawed. Limited. Sometimes broken.

And in brokenness and limitation, we turn to the cross, and lift our minds to its reality: grace, redemption, peace, restoration, healing, joy, life, possibility. For all humanity, the cross works with its power. For us, the truth of that power invades our mortal souls and kills excuse to cling to our limited flesh.

Our flesh can be His glory. Our weakness can be His strength. Our strongholds can be His deliverance.

Christ never lived in the ordinary. Yes, He was a man as well as the Son of God. Yes, he walked, talked, breathed, lived, suffered, and died as a human being. But, Jesus never viewed His life as ordinary.

He could not. He would not. For His life was not His own. It belonged to His Father, and Jesus only lived to please Him.

What He did, everything Christ did, He did not do for Himself. Jesus magnifed God the Father in all.

And, His desire for us is the same. If "anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward" (Matthew 10:42, NIV). Even a drink of water is not mundane to Jesus. He looks at our hearts while we do the great and small.

My friend Sonja, from http://www.bitsandpieces-sonja.blogspot.com/, sent me a beautiful biography about her father, Armin Gesswein, who was a mighty prayer warrior and man of God. In that book, Everything by Prayer, the author, Fred Hartley, speaks of the way we often disconnect the mundane of our lives from the spiritual. He tells that everything we do is spiritual when we are living as a servant. Even cleaning up your child's vomit is serving God when you love Him with your whole heart.

Be encouraged. In the great and small of your life, God is beside you. With you. In you.

Look for God's limitless in your ordinary. Expect His power in your walk with Him. Search for His hand in all you do. Listen for Jesus, even when you are changing a diaper, digging up weeds, wiping a dish, or waiting for one so dear.

Live your life without borders. Live your life with His heart. Live your life in God's unlimited!

Thank you for you patience in my limited posting! I am diligently working on a slight change of scenery on my blog, per direction of the Holy Spirit. Change begets change, and the life of the fire we had back in November has begun death of the ordinary in my heart. With all things new, I so want to be a channel God can use. Thanks again, and much love to all.

25 comments:

Hi Sweet Andrea! It's nice to "see" you!I'm reading a book called "Making Crosses" and the line that found a home in my heart today is this: God wants your attention, not your perfection.LOVE that! Your post jives with this! I marvel at how our sweet Savior knits thoughts together, winding them and wrapping them for us.

My dear Andrea,I never doubt that the Holy Spirit is up to something...with your long silence, I only know too well that something beautiful is happening inside of you. That you are not one to be rushed or hurried or be content with something shallow or superficial.

You are one woman who does all things well, and I am so excited for the new things that God is revealing to your heart.

This is a post that writes of the same thoughts in my own heart over the past months - I am living my life beyond boundaries, and always in light of God's limitless possibilities.

You have chosen your words well; and I do sense a deeper quality to your writing, particularly this one. It has served as nourishment to my soul, this very night when I needed some encouragement and inspiration.

Andrea:I so agree with what Lidj just commented.. 'when we don't hear from you for awhile'... God is definitely at work in your life and something good will be coming.I'm so glad you like the book, that blessed me.I've had you on my mind and heart during these weeks. I know that fire has prompted some good new things, through the ashes of what was left behind. I'll be watching and listening, and as I always am... challenged and blessed!

So glad you've got the parlor light on. And no matter what form the new look takes, I'm thinking there will still be plenty of light!

You know ... what I used to consider "small", or mundane, or insignificant has come to mean something altogether different for me. No doubt I learned it while having a tantrum on heaven's floor, but I now see those things as quietude, or the route to the gentle & quiet spirit I so long for. All God things! With Him, the least is greatest on every level.

Andrea,What a mighty post! This is the only way to live! Abiding in His Grace and walking in His Power continuously.Your words "Look for God's limitless in your ordinary. Expect His power in your walk with Him. Search for His hand in all you do." will leave you standing in Awe everytime! You are definitely on His Channel!!Love,Julie

"Our flesh can be His glory. Our weakness can be His strength. Our strongholds can be His deliverance" I love this part. I could use a little ordinary right now. :-) But I agree with you--sometimes finding God in the ordinary is so sweet.

I look froward to seeing the new changes that God has planned for your blog! How exciting! I love the message you have shared as we do tend to overlook what we have deemed unimportant by human standards but that means a graet deal to God:).

All becomes an act of worship... even snow days and vacation days--my consumption as of late. I've really needed God's patience and transforming work in my heart as it seems to be increasingly difficult for me to wake up to ordinary days.

Your words in pink at the end of this post stir much excitement in me to find out what changes God is working in you and how it will spill over into your blog!

One of my deepest desires (reflected in the title of my blog taken from 2 Peter 1:30) is that "life (the seemingly little unimportant things)and godliness (those incredible spiritual qualities)" will be increasingly united and lived out in the power and supply of my God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I want to talk (and write) less and LIVE more - participating in the divine nature and escaping the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Andrea Tankersley

Pages

YOU

Your presence here is not by chance. God orders our steps, and I am so blessed that our divinely prepared paths have come together to share the love of our Father. Please find a place beside these still waters and allow Jesus to share His love with you. You will find Him a friend, who longs to give you hope and healing and purpose and strength. Christ's voice calls to all of us. His heart speaks. May He find us good listeners.